Thou Shall NOT Kill
Religious ideology is one of the main causes of war. You can go back as far as history allows, and you will find religion at the center of most conflicts. “In the Name of ‘God’” has been the delusional mantra for the rationalization of killing other human beings since the beginning of man. Today, the only response to this perverted thought process is having a strong military branch of government. Like it or not, there are a number of people throughout the world that would love nothing more than to destroy our way of life and rain terror on our people, as they did on 9/11.
As citizens of this country, we owe an immense debt of gratitude to the men and women who put their lives at risk, as well as the other people in service around the world who work to preserve peace. They almost always sacrifice far more than they anticipated going in. We owe them more than merely saying, “Thank you for your service.” Really thanking them means providing a clean, sanitary hospital (unlike Walter Reed hospital), proper disability care and rehab, prosthetics, a supportive community of mental and physical care, comprehension of the realities of PTSD. Too many good men and women have felt abandoned by the very government – and sometimes the people – they laid their lives down to defend.
Many soldiers who served in active conflict zones return home suffering serious side effects from their experience. One of the most prevalent problems is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). For these soldiers, their ability to cope in a normal environment and relate to their family and friends has been impaired. The trauma, nightmares, anxiety, sense of isolation, hostility, and depression make it extremely difficult for many of them to live life day by day.
I’m not naïve in understanding there are times when war and fighting for a “real” cause or repelling a
threat to our democracy are simply unavoidable. But it does not come without a heavy price for the men and woman in uniform. Once your name is signed on the dotted line, you become the property of the U.S. government. You must follow orders, regardless of your personal beliefs or the damage your actions might do to your mind and soul. If you decide to join any branch of the military, ask yourself, “Am I willing to follow orders and live with the aftermath of killing other human beings for my country if called upon to do so?”
War – and the killing of “enemy” combatants – is always sold as a necessary sin by governments and sold-out politicians paying political debts to the corporations that contributed to their campaigns and put them in office. The soldiers are merely “puppets” used in their malicious game. Does “God” turn a blind eye to the otherwise immoral act that goes on every single day?
The Ten Commandments are considered the Law of God. Right there, generally in the middle of the list, is “Thou shall not kill.” Most societies around the world consider taking human life a sin. Courts of law will sentence you to jail, sometimes for life, if you murder someone without justifiable cause. But kill someone for your country, as a soldier, and you’re rewarded with a medal.
The Commandment does not say, “Thou shall not kill except under these conditions …” with a bulleted list to follow. When it’s convenient to our personal or political agendas, it will always be possible to legitimize terrible behavior. We rationalize the truth to justify our actions.
Here’s where rationalization and interpretation confront an inconvenient truth. It’s easy to rationalize the difference between killing for your country and committing the crime of murder, almost a necessity in the mind of a soldier who is “doing his job.” However, in the eyes of “God,” killing is killing, no matter what rationalization you employ. But the real question is, “Who is ultimately responsible?”
Abraham Lincoln said during the Civil War, “In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.” It’s a conundrum, one of many involving religion, which I talk about extensively in “Jack in the Box,” especially in The Belief.
Human beings cause wars, and they will inevitably cause more wars in the future. Terrorist groups – Taliban, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Boko Haram, FARC, and the IRA – are often religious-based militia rooted in hate, with the sole purpose of enforcing their typically narrow religious ideology on all others, killing anyone who refuses to convert enthusiastically to their cause.